page_title: Highlands and Islands Alliance
section_title: Policy outline
hierarchical_section_title: Highlands and Islands Alliance / Ideology and policies / Policy outline
caption_attribution_description: English: Fishing boats Mallaig Harbour.
context_page_description: The Highlands and Islands Alliance or Càirdeas was a minor Scottish electoral alliance that was active in the late 1990s. Founded in the Autumn of 1998 by non-partisan politicians local to the Highlands and Islands, it only contested the inaugural Scottish Parliament election of 1999, where it collected a negligible 1.3% of the regional vote and despite a reasonably publicised campaign, failed to elect any of its candidates. Led by anti-nuclear activist Lorraine Mann, the Alliance was established to better represent marginalised communities in rural Scotland, who they felt had been ignored by government in favour of those in the more densely populated Central Belt. Its policies were near exclusively centred on localism and rural issues, only contesting Scotland's regional additional member system so that electors could vote on nationwide matters through their constituency ballot. After the election, the group remained politically inactive until it was quietly disestablished in August 2004.
  Although electorally unimportant, the Alliance's legal campaign to allow political job sharing in the Scottish Parliament attracted considerable media and academic coverage.
context_section_description: Mann suggested that the group were promoting "positions rather than policies", with representatives not bound to act on legislation according to party instruction. They instead proposed that any Member of the Scottish Parliament (MSP) elected from the Alliance would consult their electorate on how to vote through the internet, namely via E-Mail, in what they hailed as a new form of "community democracy". Described by political scientists David Butler and Martin Westlake as "localised", the Alliance nonetheless developed a detailed regional policy platform "on the basis that the distinctive voice of [the Highlands and Islands] should be heard". This included the release of a publication, The Problems, in Fishing, Aquaculture, and the Marine Environment, authored by Edwin Stiven and printed in Glenelg. In it, Stiven recommends that fisheries in the west of Scotland should be free of all European Union (EU) influence and legal restrictions, advocating their complete return to community ownership; he further suggests management by sea trusts, similar to those established for crofts. Otherwise regarding the EU, the Alliance called for more funding to be directed towards "communities which have found themselves on the periphery of investment."
  Domestically, the group pushed for the diversification of funding from central government to promote sustainable jobs, including the establishment of a separate, Scottish agricultural policy that prioritised land reform and redistribution initiatives. It further believed that attempted funding strategies in the Highlands and Islands were largely unworkable due to the lack of big business and investment, instead suggesting the formation of a regional Highland bank. Social policy proposals were similarly community-focused, and included support for affordable basic services and the upkeep of rural schools, namely preschools. Connected to this was the Alliance's proposal for a non-legislative assembly in which all of the region's parliamentarians (MPs, MEPs and MSPs) would convene and discuss policy development with their local constituents. The group also endorsed the founding of a watchdog to monitor the Highlands and Islands' quangos and public services.
  Suggestions in transport included ending toll collections on the Skye Road Bridge, improving the region's ferry network, slashing fares for local public transport and establishing a community-owned airline; these measures were to be encompassed into the Alliance's "Right to Move" scheme. Nationally, the Alliance supported both the reduction of student tuition fees and the maintenance of British student grants. Regarding the continuation of the United Kingdom, it took a neutral stance, simply stating "a Scotland which is treated fairly is more likely to want to stay within the union." The Alliance are recorded as supporters of the Scottish Gaelic language.
caption: The Alliance favoured community ownership of Scottish fisheries.
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